


Upkeep

by magicgenetek



Category: Radiant Historia
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 07:56:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16970730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicgenetek/pseuds/magicgenetek
Summary: Fennel and Heiss talk shop when Heiss comes down for gauntlet maintenance.





	Upkeep

"Good morning, Fennel."

"Morning, Heiss."

Special Intelligence's offices are on the second floor of Alestiel's citadel, and Fennel's labs are in the basement, but Heiss visits the labs twice a month, regular as clockwork. Like adding a new vertebrae to a spine, Heiss jokes dryly every so often, or adding nodes to a network of train tracks. If that’s the case, their friendship is a snake trailing back years.

Heiss already has his coat off and hangs it on a chair that Fennel’s assistants sometimes, then rolls up his sleeves. Wearing only his uniform pants and white dress shirt, there’s no hiding his broad shoulders, the muscular line of his back, his thick upper arms. Heiss is nearly Fennel’s age, but you wouldn’t know if it if you only looked at him from the neck down.

“Staring again?” Heiss asks as he takes to the padded chair he uses when he goes under maintenance. From the elbows down, his arms are leather and steel, and it only takes a few deft movements for him to remove the gloves he wears over his mechanical hands. His knuckles glint under the sterile lab lights. “I haven’t broken them this time, doctor. I can’t imagine what I’ve done to warrant your attention.”

“Your upkeep remains phenomenal as usual,” Fennel says as his he stretches his arms out from his metal body. “You haven’t had any more issues with the joints, have you?”

“Only when there’s rain, but I’m told that’s what happens with organic joints as well,” Heiss says with a wolfish grin. “The humidity has never agreed with me.”

"Does anything agree with you these days?"

"Hugo certainly hasn't. Did you hear the latest title he decided to burn onto our project?"

Heiss leans in, conspiratorial. Fennel can't lean in with him, physically, but he scoots himself closer in anticipation and dread. "What is he calling it this time?"

"Noah's Blessing," Heiss says.

Fennel wheezes. "You can't let him call it that!"

"He thinks it's almost as much of a gift from heaven as he is."

This time, Fennel's wheeze is closer to a laugh.

"But he's doubling your funding this month, so I suggest you grin and bear it," Heiss says.

"If you insist," Fennel says with more indignation than he really feels, and finishes upkeep on the first arm.

Heiss raises it, flexing his fingers one by one, reading for the ceiling lights. "If he knew anything, he'd be calling it blasphemy."

"If he knew anything, he'd be calling it science," Fennel counters. Heiss could be almost as bad as Hugo when it came to their project - as if making a weapon could be anything like a gift or a burden from the gods!

Before Fennel can object further, Heiss says, "I know. You'd say it comes from the hands of men. What can the gods do that men can't?" His fist clatters shut. "Nothing. Gods and men are equally useless."

"If that's the case, why do you come down here to rant about them so often?"

Heiss doesn't answer. Fennel circles him, starts checking his other arm, is halfway through maintenance before the man replies.

"No matter how often I go, you're always down here. It is," and Heiss's lips curl around the word as if reluctant to let go, "nice to have that consistancy."

"Where would I go? These labs are my life," Fennel reminds him.   


The other man's eyes go glassy for a moment, but he shakes it off. Grins. "They always are. Now, why don't you update me on how our Divine Judgement -"

"Heiss!!"

" - is coming in production. We only have so much time, after all."

"You never seem to run out."  


"I can only hope that stops being true sooner or later."  


**Author's Note:**

> Heiss had to get those sick robot arms from somewhere, right? And Fennel needed someone who was a Flux expert for the Divine Judgement. I bet these two got up to all kinds of trouble in the labs, and Fennel's learned to deal with Heiss's dramatic streak at this point. STOP MAKING CRYPTIC METAPHORS AND HAND ME A WRENCH.


End file.
